Recently, two former gang members who had been converted to Christianity went out on a Saturday night, as was their custom, to tell strangers on the street the good news about Jesus Christ.
        One of the people they spoke with didn’t like what they were saying. Before they could get away, he pulled out a gun and shot them in cold blood. Another evangelist who was with them was able to get away and called the police. Through his help, they were able to catch the killer and learn what happened.
        This story didn’t happen in Pakistan or in Kenya.
        It happened in the United States. In fact, it happened relatively close to where I live, in Boynton Beach, Florida.
         Has Christian martyrdom come to the United States? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be yes.
         The gunning down of these two men took place in January 2010. That is "ancient history" in terms of the news cycle. Yet it barely made the news. Whenever I mention it to people---even well-informed Christians---the vast majority have never heard about this. So I think it’s worth bringing up.
        Stephen Ocean, 23, and Tite Sufra, 24, had troubled pasts and found salvation as the means for personal transformation. The Palm Beach Post reports, "Ocean was arrested in 2003 on robbery charges and in 2004 for violating probation on previous battery and petit theft convictions. He was arrested in 2006 for carrying a concealed firearm and resisting an officer." However, Sufra had no adult arrest record.
        Because of their transformation, Sufra and Ocean were active in spreading the Word of the Lord. The year before the incident, they had even been ordained by their church. Ocean’s sister said: "They go around and minister to boys and say where they came from…They did that all day and all night."
         On January 30, 2010, they were out in the streets of Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County when they encountered 18-year old Jeriah Woody. The Post reports that they preached to him for a quarter of an hour, until his cell phone rang, and he told them he had to leave. The three were walking away when Woody reportedly ran back to them and shot Sufra dead. He shot Ocean once, and then to shoot him a second time --in the head--execution style.
         Woody later turned himself in. He now awaits trial.
         I suppose somebody could say it was just another murder on the mean streets of urban America.
         And it was. But if they hadn’t been out sharing the gospel that night, they would be alive. Besides, could you imagine if they had been promoters of some sort of protected speech and then gunned down like this in cold blood?  Surely, the story of the murders would have then made it beyond the local news.
         For instance, Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission based in San Diego, who came to South Florida in May and organized a prayer vigil to honor the two men, asked this poignant question: Could you imagine if this slaying had happened to two Muslims preaching the way of Allah and they were killed by an "Islamaphobe"? Or what if these were two gay men promoting their lifestyle who were killed by "a homophobe"? In short, we’re so used to anti-Christian bias that disturbing news of anti-Christian bias doesn’t seem to phase us any more.
         My wife and I attended that prayer vigil that Dr. Cass and also Rev. Pat Mahoney organized. The memorial service included prayers, speeches, and songs from some of the survivor’s families. The climax of the service was when the 50 or so participants were each handed a long-stem flower, and then crossed the street to the very places where Ocean and Sufra had been slain.
        Each person laid a flower at the spot, and prayers were offered up. Ocean’s mother melted into tears at this most gut-wrenching part of the service.
         I hope martyrdom has not come to America. I hope this is an isolated incident. But if given the choice: Deny Christ or die, to me there is only one genuine option. It’s the one chosen by Stephen Ocean and Tite Sufra. Long live their memories.